1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the global Internet and Internet World Wide Web (WWW) sites. More particularly, this invention relates to a system and method for improving the accessibility of Web sites through the use of accessibility descriptors that can be assigned to a Web site and/or individual pages of a Web site to enable the page(s) of the site to be modified and displayed according to the particular user""s needs.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The Internet is the world""s largest network and has become essential to many businesses and important if not essential to many individuals. However, the accessibility of the Internet is limited for many people who suffer disabilities, often age-related, such as poor hearing, visual acuity and manual dexterity. These disadvantages can limit an individual""s ability to use a computer in general, and the Internet in particular. As an example, about 6 percent of the population between the ages of forty-five and seventy-five cannot read newspaper print due to vision limitations, even when wearing glasses. As a result, such persons cannot read many World Wide Web (www) pages that contain newspaper-sized text in hard-to modify forms, e.g., as images rather than ASCII. In some cases, ASCII text can be made more readable by selecting a large default font as one preference of the Web browser being used. In other cases, the large font is overridden by the Web page, or the page formats very badly. It is very frustrating and discouraging, as well as useless, to load and display such a page.
With the increasing average age of the world population, age-related limitations will be an increasing problem as the Internet becomes more important in daily life. As a result, various efforts are underway to improve the accessibility of Web sites. For example, the WWW Consortium (W3C) has been very active in establishing guidelines to improve Web content accessibility for people with disabilities. However, Web site designers are not required to follow such guidelines, with the result that many Web pages have poor accessibility. There are tools available that enable a user to examine a single Web page or an entire Web site for accessibility. For example, a Web-based tool named xe2x80x9cBobbyxe2x80x9d created by CAST is available on the Internet for analyzing Web sites and pages based on the guidelines established by the W3C in their xe2x80x9cWeb Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.xe2x80x9d Bobby is used to approve Web sites that comply with the W3C guidelines, conferring a xe2x80x9cBobby Approvedxe2x80x9d rating that Web creators can show as an icon on their sites.
While the efforts discussed above are an important step in making the Internet more readily accessible to all persons, these efforts are largely based on persuading Web site creators to design more accessible sites, but do not actively assist the user by making an initially low-accessible site more accessible for his or her particular disabilities.
The present invention provides a system and method of improving the accessibility of Web sites and pages through the use of accessibility descriptors that can be assigned to a Web site and/or each page of a Web site to enable the page(s) of the site to be assessed, modified, and then displayed according to a particular user""s needs. A set of descriptors quantifies certain aspects of a page, enabling the page to be properly presented according to a user""s quantified capabilities. One example of a descriptor is the size (measured as a fraction of the screen size) of the smallest visual features on the page which must be resolved for the page to be usable. When combined with a particular user""s capabilities (angular visual acuity, actual display size, and viewing distance), this information can be used to expand or modify the fonts and images to produce a readable page. The labor cost of creating the descriptors, which may be significant, can be charged either to the provider or to the users of the information, while the cost of converting the images to suit each user can be charged to the individual user, or in some instances, the conversion can be performed on the user""s computer at no additional cost to the user. Thus, the system of this invention can be set up to require a user fee for the service, thus encouraging Web creators to design Web pages that can be modified in accordance with the accessibility descriptors.
In view of the above, the invention can be generally seen as an Internet service that solves the problem of Internet access for those with certain disabilities, including visual acuity, hearing impairment, manual dexterity (for mouse/keyboard control), and cognitive difficulties. Web sites may subscribe to, or be registered with, the service, depending on how the invention is implemented. The descriptors provide objective indicators of the suitability of a Web site and/or Web pages for users with regard to their physical disabilities, and in doing so can be used to determine how a Web site/page should be adapted to accommodate a particular user""s disabilities. The site/page can then be appropriately modified by the user""s Internet browser or a separate server to render the site/page more accessible to the user. It should be noted that this is very different from preparing and storing multiple copies of each page, with different fonts sizes, colors, etc., and then sending the appropriate page to a user. Because of the many combinations of impairments, the storage requirements of such a system would be impractical.
Alternatively, the invention may provide instructions as to how the user can suitably modify a page for viewing by adjusting their web browser""s preferences. For example, such instructions might indicate what font size, face or color would be suitable given a user""s visual requirements. A notice would be provided if a page cannot be suitably modified for the user, such as when the font size cannot be increased beyond a certain value without requiring excessive scrolling, or when the user""s font preferences are overridden by the web page settings. The existence of alternative pages, with their URL""s (Uniform Resource Locator), can also be indicated. The ratings can be indexed by the URL, which may point either to the home page of the Web site, or to individual pages within the Web site. The ratings for each page in a Web site can be stored on that page. If they are the same for all pages in a Web site, they can be stored, for example, in the site""s home page. Alternatively, the ratings can be stored in a file on a special Web server in such a way that they can be quickly retrieved by making use of the URL for that page, using standard methods well known in the art.
The invention encompasses a rating system in which ratings (i.e., sets of descriptors) are provided by the operator of the service, by the creator of the Web site or page, or by an independent organization such as a nonprofit foundation for people with disabilities. The latter method decreases the chance of a conflict of interest and is believed to promote the accuracy of the ratings. The accuracy of the ratings would presumably be further promoted by charging each user of the service, rather than the Web sites, as doing so generates market pressure for accurate ratings.
From the above, it can be seen that the present invention is a significant tool for making the Internet more readily accessible to all persons by actively adapting Web sites and pages to address and accommodate the physical disabilities of users whose access to the Internet might be otherwise severely limited. Importantly, the present invention can be implemented to provide substantial motivation for Web site creators to design sites that can display normally for users without disabilities, yet adaptable to make the site more accessible to users with physical disabilities. Accordingly, this invention fulfills an immediate need, and will find even greater demand as the average age of the world population increases and the Internet becomes more important in daily life.
Other objects and advantages of this invention will be better appreciated from the following detailed description.